The cold earth sleeps below, above the cold sky shines

Today, I was going to write about McMurdo being like summer camp, only colder.  I've changed my mind. To digress briefly, I had both a sadistic dentist (no novocaine) and a horrible orthodontist as a child.  The consequence--other than that I hate going to the dentist--is that I had dents on my front teeth that were stained and ugly.  About 15 years ago, I decided to get veneers to cover the damage.  Anyone who has had a veneer knows that they first shave down the tooth to a stub of its former self and then add a porcelain front.  If the veneer falls off, you're left looking like the witch in Snow White. A month before I came to McMurdo, one of my two veneers fell off and I lost (swallowed?) it.   In a masterful feat of scheduling, I actually had it replaced with a permanent veneer before I went off to Galveston for training.  While there, I expressed my concern to our dentist, Bob Koff (see post of 8/15), that the other veneer was similarly...

This morning, CON 3, looking at Building 155 from the Clinic Current conditions:  Con 3, Temp -2F (-27F with wind chill), overcast.  Population: 277 Yesterday began with beautiful weather.  Clear skies, no wind, but very, very cold.  Dean and I planned a date night with a trip over to the New Zealand base two miles away.   Every Thursday is "American night" at Scott Base and the Kiwis open up their superior bar and store to the denizens of McMurdo.  We were looking forward to it. In the afternoon, Shawn, the nurse manager, began teaching us about using the IVACs, the machines that run intravenous drug administration.  Although combined, Dean and I have practiced medicine for 70+ years, we don't know how to do something as simple as administering an IV.  (That adds to the many other simple things that were left to more competent people than I--splint someone's joint, give a nebulizer, do PFTs, etc., etc).  As we were practicing, ...

Current conditions:  Con 3, Temp -18F (-38F with wind chill), overcast.  Population: 277 Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays  these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. It appears the Antarctic Circle does prevent the swift completion of appointed rounds. No planes come into Antarctica from April through Winfly (usually in mid-August). The 130 or so people who over-wintered on the ice have seen no mail, no fresh foods and no new faces (not to mention no sun) for four months.  Consequently, they have all been anxiously looking at the television screen where flights are posted, praying for the five delayed Winfly flights to come in.  Then, when they did come in, again disappointment rapidly spread through the base.  Because we were so late getting in, the USAP decided to fill the first two planes (mine and Dean's) with personnel and with little cargo.  Personnel have priority since we need ti...

A brief public service announcement: There are many deadly threats in Antarctica:  weather in particular but also injury by heavy equipment, crevasses,  cold water immersion, motor vehicle and helicopter accidents, and leopard seals.  One thing we don't have to fear is being shot.  There are no assault weapons.   In fact, McMurdo personnel can have no weapons of any kind in their personal possession.  Strictly verboten. New Zealand banned assault weapons after the mosque killings.  They do allow personal weapons--particularly for sport shooting-- but only after universal background check and registration of the weapon with the police.  So, in the last month, we have had little to fear from the two greatest people-killers:  mosquitos and other human beings. Nevertheless, we have not forgotten our friends in the continental US who continue to have to deal with this every day, either in the ER or in their daily lives....

Current conditions:  Con 3, Temp -22F (-40F with wind chill), overcast.  Population: 277 I arrived on Thursday night and began work the following morning.  For everyone arriving, work starts right away with a 54 hour week:  from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM with lunch/errands from 11:30 to 1 every day except Sunday.  The medical personnel also have call every third to fourth night.    Shawn the Nurse Manager, Chris the outgoing Lead Physician and Beth, the outgoing Physical Therapist in the Clinic Kitchen at the 7:30 morning meeting Currently, there are five of us in the clinic: the winter season chief doctor (he overlaps with us for one month), the winter season physical therapist (she's leaving in a few weeks), Shawn (the nurse manager), Dean and me.  But with only 250 or so people on base, we haven't had much to do in terms of patient care. Over the first week, we've had eight patients.  The worst was someone who was dehydrated aft...

Current conditions:  Con 3, Temp -13F (-33F with wind chill), clear.  Population: 277 Sundays are lovely here. The great majority of people have the day off. The dining hall serves only two meals:  a huge brunch (more about the food later) and dinner. People hang out, watch movies, play games, go on hikes.  We wandered down to Discovery Hut that Scott's crew built during his first expedition from 1902-1904.    As with all things done by Scott,  poor planning made the hut largely uninhabitable. Insulation was far too thin.  The hut was used for storage and as an emergency shelter by all the "big name" Antarctic explorers over the subsequent 15 years.  It then survived four decades of disuse before being dug up in 1959.  I've been studying up about the Antarctic explorers in the hope that USAP will take me on as a docent there when "Main Body" (the term for summer season) begins in mid-October.    Scott's, Shac...